June 28, 2013

Having fallen at the hands of Hades, Jodi's enduring torture like she never imagined. Worse, she has to watch her Ophi friends suffer along with her--the punishment doled out by the very people she'd sentenced to life in Tartarus. Hell. This is one reunion Jodi hoped would never happen, but now she must find a way to free them all.

Except the underworld is nearly impossible to escape.

Jodi's one chance may rest in raising the human soul she killed when she drank Medusa's blood.

But splitting her human soul from her Ophi soul means living a double life: One as an Ophi experiencing unspeakable torture and the other as the human she could have been if she never came into her powers. With her two worlds colliding, Jodi will have to make the toughest decision she's faced yet.

June 26, 2013

It didn’t take long for the world to die. And it didn’t take long, either, for the dead to rise.

Born on the day everything ended, a world filled with the walking dead is the only one that Aaron knows. Kept in seclusion, his family teaches him the basics. How to read and write. How to survive.

Then Aaron makes a shocking discovery. The undead, who desire nothing but flesh, ignore him. It’s as if he’s invisible to them.

The survivors of the old suburb of Lexington call a high school their home. They live day to day, without any of the luxuries mankind used to enjoy. Samantha is a product of the new world. Alone, cold, looking out only for herself. She and the other residents of Lexington feel their hope dwindling. They need change. They need someone who can face the corpses. They need someone who can live in a city of the dead.

They need Aaron.

My favorite scene to write in Dead Living
by Glenn Bullion

I’d like to think Dead Living is a solid little zombie tale. It doesn’t just follow a group of blank slates who are fighting zombies, struggling to survive (although there is plenty of zombie munching). It was rewarding to breathe life into the cast of characters, and I actually struggled when it came to writing a few death scenes. The beginning of the book was particularly painful, but I won’t go into too many details to avoid spoilers.

I did have a few scenes that I loved putting together. Ironically one of them is more character driven than action, while the other scene is the complete opposite. The two main characters in the novel are Aaron and Samantha. The young pair couldn’t be more opposite, and I loved the dynamic they had with one another. I loved writing the scene in which they first meet, in zombie-overrun Baltimore. Looking at the situation from each character’s point of view, Aaron wonders why a woman is running for her life in a city where she shouldn’t be. Meanwhile, Samantha is curious as to how a man could survive on his own in the thick of a zombie horde. There’s immediate tension, as Aaron wants things to go back to how they were, but he can’t kick Samantha aside. Samantha wants nothing more
than to get back to her camp, but needs Aaron’s help in order to survive.

The other scene I constantly come back to is an action-driven one near the end of the book. I won’t spoil anything that’s not on the back cover of the book. Aaron is essentially the rarest type of human in the zombie apocalypse. He’s immune to the undead, and he is actually a kind, hopeful man. But, as the scene I’m talking about goes into, every man has his limits. Revenge is something that is hard to walk away from, and what kind of damage could someone do if he didn’t have to worry about the zombie horde?

I had a lot of fun creating Dead Living, even with the scenes that choked me up a little. Hopefully anyone who enjoys zombie fiction agrees with me. Happy reading.

I live in Maryland with my wonderful wife and four cats. I love gaming, computer technology, movies, and of course, reading and writing. I love science fiction and especially horror and the paranormal. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, anything supernatural, all beautiful subjects.

I’ve been writing since I was twelve years old. There’s just something about creating a story that I like. I always try come up with something that hasn’t been done, or is unique in some way. It could be someone with demonic powers, or something much more simple, such as a person that zombies ignore. It’s fun to create a character, give him or her a personality and background, and watch them evolve through a story.

I’ve tried other subjects, but always drift back to horror and paranormal. There’s a reason why we keep going back to horror movies and books, why they’ve made fifty Friday the 13th movies. People like to be scared, but more than that, I think paranormal and horror stir the imagination like nothing else. We’re all just a little nervous to open that closet door at midnight, or look under the bed.

Rose Zarelli has big plans for sophomore year — everything is going to be different. This year, she’s going to be the talented singer with the killer voice, the fabulous girl with the fashionista best friend, the brainiac who refuses to let Jamie Forta jerk her around...

...but if she’s not careful, she’s also going to be the sister who misses the signals, the daughter who can only think about her own pain, the “good girl” who finds herself in mid-scandal again (because no good deed goes unpunished) and possibly worst of all...the almost-girlfriend.

"..And since Rose is older in the next book, I suspect I won't be having that much trouble with the age issue then!"

So that's how I ended the first books review. How stupid of me, that was clearly a jinx.
But more on that later, because the main thing is.. This definitely ends up being one of my this years favorite books, and is just as brilliant as the first one!

Things are pretty much the same with Rose, meaning everything is f'ed up and she's kind of angry. Not as angry as before, but somewhat. So she spends a lot of time in therapy with her mother, because why wouldn't that be fun?
Her brother is just as absent as before and has some pretty dark secrets. Her best friends seem to have their own things and then there's Jamie Forta, who is even more of a mystery than before!
I would be annoyed, too.

Rose manages to surprise my yet again. Even though she's angry and feels betrayed by everyone, she manages to make the best of it. Just like that she finds her true calling and starts to grow up (fast)!
She doesn't let anyone else define her, but starts to trust herself and her good heart and.. she just amazes me, again. She's an inspiring main character and I just can't get enough of her!
But this time, I wasn't really impressed with Jamie Forta. Or with any other character, really. They made me feel annoyed and basically the same feelings as Rose. And the feminist inside me was all hooray! when Rose finally realized Jamie Forta isn't the answer! Yay! (But why do I keep writing "Jamie Forta"? Can't I just use one name?! Guess he's just one of those guys..)

Then there's the one, and only, but. This is the reason why there's half a cupcake missing, and is the same reason I didn't completely fell in love with the first book. The age thing.
I know, Rose is older and wiser, but, again, it's just too much. She's supposed to be 15. How many of you found their true calling at the age of fifteen? How many of you weren't an awkward blob most of the time? And here I'm waving my hand, because I remember what it was like to be fifteen. I was the most awkward girl on my class and just tried to fit in, and so did pretty much everyone else. We were just ridiculous and thinking back to those days just makes me want to cry most of the time.
We were childish and so extremely ridiculous and yes, now I'm definitely crying. It was just.. horrible. Nothing like Rose's life, which really makes me envy her.

She made her YA debut with Confessions of an Angry Girl, published by Harlequin Teen. The next book in
the series, Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend, is due out June 2013.

She lives with her 120-pound Bernese Mountain dog Lester (named after Lester Freamon from THE WIRE,
of course) in one of the world's greatest literary meccas, Brooklyn...and also in sunny Los
Angeles. (Being bi-coastal is fun!)

June 21, 2013

Life or Death? Not many people would choose death. But what if death chooses you? What if death doesn’t mean the end of your life, but the beginning?

For a Death Escort, death is life. Death is your paycheck. Death is your job.

And Charming is the best Escort the Grim Reaper has ever had.

But when you piss off the Reaper, being the best doesn’t matter. So Charming is assigned a Target who is practically impossible to kill. He knows the Reaper hopes he fails—that he’s counting on it. So Charming vows to prove him wrong. He vows to make the kill.

But someone else vows to get in his way. Someone with a big mouth, a sugar habit, and blond hair. Someone who makes his heart start beating again.

And so Charming is left holding more than one person’s fate in the palm of his hand. He thought the choice would be easy, that there really wasn’t a question at all.

June 19, 2013

KOS MARAS’s orderly life is in shambles—he must distribute Blood Vine to a population of ailing vampires, but Hunters block him at every turn. To make matters worse, each night he watches over a temptingly beautiful woman sleeping in his bed. He is convinced love cannot last a vampire-long lifetime and an entanglement will only cause them grief, but he doesn’t have the heart to send her away.

From a long line of blood servants, LENA ISAAKSON is destined to serve a vampire, but a string of humiliating rejections thwarts her pleasure. When Kos shows her kindness, she hopes he will claim her. Instead he proves himself a coward in the face of love and sends her to serve another.

Will the dark seduction of a rakish new vampire finally bring Lena the pleasure she desires or deliver her into the hands of Hunters who want to destroy everything the Maras family has worked for?

June 17, 2013

Gracie has just finished her freshman year of college in Memphis when she takes a job at a local pizza joint in her home town of McKenzie, Tennessee. She is the epitome of innocence when she meets Noah. Noah is unabashedly handsome, intriguingly reckless and just cocky enough to be sexy. Gracie’s instincts tell her to stay far away from him and based on the stories she hears from her co-workers he leaves broken hearts in his wake. But still, she can’t explain her fascination with him.

Noah puts aside his bad boy ways when what he thought was a summer crush has him unexpectedly falling in love. But soon after Gracie transfers to UT Knoxville to be with Noah, their unexpected love becomes riddled with anger, deceit and humiliation.

Jake, Noah’s former roommate and Gracie’s best friend, can no longer be a bystander. Gracie’s world falls out from beneath her and when she breaks she turns to Jake for strength. As Jake talks her through a decision she’s not yet strong enough to make, together they uncover a truth so ugly neither of them is prepared for its fallout. Will Jake pull her to the surface or is Gracie Jordan finally In Too Deep?

Excerpt

The strong force of the wave pulled me under. I gasped for air just before my face disappeared below the surface. My body rolled over and over, my arms flailed, and my head pounded into the sea bed which felt like a concrete floor. The salty water stung my eyes. I forced myself to keep them open, fearing I would slip into unconsciousness from the blow I took to the head. I knew I had to hold it together long enough for the swell to pull me back up when the wave rolled. But something was pulling me deeper. I fought with all my might, kicking against the thick water swallowing me whole. I used my arms like underwater oars and sliced through the depths trying to reach what I needed most, but I was in too deep.

“Get out!” I could barely get the words out before I had to run to the bathroom and void my gut of its contents. Noah didn’t move.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and screamed, “I said, Get! Out!” I stumbled back into the room, grabbed the box of mementos I’d collected from the last year of our relationship, and dumped everything into the trashcan in the corner. Like a communal grave, there lay movie tickets, dried rose petals, a strip of photos from the boardwalk, all the beautiful letters he wrote last fall semester, an empty beer bottle, and all the rest of what was now just a reminder of the guy I thought I knew.
“Gracie, don’t…” His face fell, but he didn’t move from the edge of my bed.
“Don’t? Don’t what, Noah? Don’t break up with you? Are you kidding?” My ears burned from his admission of guilt. It hit me broadside. I wasn’t prepared for the words he had spoken just moments before.

The rush of water covering me grew cold. Icy. My body quaked. My lungs burned and begged for air. I could see light above. It glimmered and danced on the small waves my panic created. I reached for the surface. Even if I couldn’t pull myself up, maybe just feeling the sun’s warmth would stop the shivering that threatened to unravel me.

My legs gave out beneath me and I crumbled into a heap on my apartment floor. I sobbed so uncontrollably I gasped for air. I was livid. Repulsed. Crushed and torn. Noah was the love of my life, and things were just getting back to the way I longed for them to be. Back to what used to be our “normal.” Before he pledged Sigma Chi. Our relationship hadn’t been easy since I transferred to Knoxville. But our story wasn’t ready to end.
It went something like this:
Bad boy meets good girl.
First kiss.
Bad boy turns sensitive.
Love.
Good girl gives sensitive boy all of her.
Long distance.
Flowers. Love letters.
Long, sweet phone calls.
Good girl transfers to sensitive boy’s school.
Sensitive boy becomes fraternity boy.
Drunken social events.
Secrets revealed.
Fraternity boy pulls good girl under.
Good girl finds herself in too deep.

It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission.

Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, can their love survive through the ever night?
In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

*MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS*
This book continues where Under the Never Sky left. In the first book we saw Aria who had lived her whole life in Reverie and wouldn't have survive without help. Now both Perry and Aria have gone through huge changes; Aria was a scared little girl, but now an experienced hunter and traveler. Perry's new position as The Tides leader isn't what he thought, thanks to worsening Aether storms and harder living conditions. He tries his best but just can't seem to live up to his brother.
The world is in near chaos and their only hope is to find Still Blue, where the sky really is still blue without any Aether storms.

If I remember correctly, this series is going to be a trilogy. And many times the second book is nothing but some "filling" and everyone just waits for the third book. But luckily this ended up being just as good as the first one! I loved the first book and I loved this just as much.

In the end, I had very little to complain about. Yeah, I know, that's rare! I actually had only two complaints: First was about how there wasn't really any recap in the beginning. It had been a while since I read the first book, so it was kind of hard to dive into the story when I had absolutely no idea what happened in the first book! Minor detail, but bugged me a little.
The second problem was with the translation. I was reading Finnish edition and mostly it was perfectly translated and original. There was just two incidents, where the translator decided to use English words. One word was "ignore" and the second "stalk". Believe me, if everything else is perfect Finnish, it's pretty weird to stumble on some English words used as they are!
I know Finnish is hard sometimes, especially when the perfect word doesn't exist. But I cried only little over this, so no harm done!

And now.. We'll just wait another year for another book. So the usual problem.

June 04, 2013

Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging.
In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul.

After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters.

Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life - a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

Excerpt

The bus ride to the quarantine facility took more than ten hours. I was shoved against the window by my seatmate who slept almost the entire trip. He was a big guy, taking up most of the seat, and when he slept his body lolled to the side, wedging me against the metal side of the bus.

As we traveled, the air turned hot and dry, different than the humid, sticky climate of my coastal Texas hometown. The old school bus didn’t have air conditioning and the small windows didn’t let much air in. My seatmate’s body heat didn’t help. I was hot, thirsty, and had to pee in the worst way.

Wondering how much longer I’d be drooled on by the guy next to me, I strained my face against the window, looking for anything on the flat landscape.

That’s when I saw them.

I don’t know why I was surprised. I should’ve expected it after what had happened at the high school, but I hadn’t. It was worse than at the school—rioters everywhere. They waved anti-raffle signs and signs cursing the “Chosen.”

The land around the quarantine area was flat, dry, and dusty. The people lining the road sat under makeshift tents to keep out of the sun. Some stood on top of their RVs waving their handmade signs; one burned an American flag.
I watched women holding their small children toward the bus, begging with tear-stained faces for us to take them. I wanted to reach out and snatch them out of their mothers’ hands as we drove past. Several of the other people on the bus reached up and pushed their windows shut.

The National Guard at the quarantine site didn’t allow people to get close enough to touch the bus. They were shot with rubber bullets or Tasered if they tried to cross the police line. Every time I heard the shot of the riot guns I jumped. My muscles ached from tensing them—waiting for the inevitable sound.

“Why are you crying?” A boy sitting in front of me looked at me like I’d grown another head. “They’d probably kill you and steal your place in the PODs if given the chance.”

I shook my head, remembering what my dad had told me. “They’re just scared,” I said. After all, they were, essentially, the walking dead.

The rioters screamed and cursed us. They threw rocks and eggs as we drove by. An egg hit the window next to me, the slimy insides plopping against my head, matting my hair.

“Gross,” the boy sitting next to me said.

I just looked at him and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, the egg is gross. And the drool coming out of your mouth and dripping on my leg while you slept, leaning on me, was glorious."

The bus stopped in a fenced area like the one at the high school. The crowd screamed and banged the fence posts with their crude, homemade picket signs. Some climbed on the fence, pulling at it like chimpanzees at the zoo.

“Stay seated until your name is called,” a soldier yelled. “When you are called, grab your belongings and wait to be escorted into the building.”

"Oh please, call this guy’s name. He needs to move before I shove him off the seat. I’m
tired of being pinned against the side of the bus. I need some room."

Thankfully, my name was called soon after we stopped. I stood, stretched the kinks out of my muscles, and plowed through the massive body blocking me. Clambering over the other luggage that filled the aisle, I grabbed my two suitcases and stood in front of the bus.

The one-story brick building was large but had no windows, only a single green door. I couldn’t see the other sides, but I had a feeling there’d be no windows there, either—no glass for rioters to break through.

The soldier walked up from behind me, tapping my suitcase with his clipboard. “Follow me.”

I shuffled into the brick building, guided by the same guardsman who’d ripped me away from my parents hours earlier...

“I love you,” my mom said through her tears, her voice thick and trembling.

“I want to stay with you,” I pleaded.

“Come here, kiddo.” My dad, his face distorted with grief, folded me in a tight hug. He kissed the top of my head and told me he loved me and how proud he was of me.
“I know, when this is over, you are going to do great things, Eva. you’re a fighter. I love you so much.”

A rough hand grabbed my arm, pulling me away from my dad. “Get on the bus,” the male voice ordered, yelling to be heard over the crying of parents and children saying their final goodbyes.

“I’m not done saying goodbye...” He didn’t let go, pulling me with him. My heels digging into the dirt, I tried to pull away. I needed one more hug, to hear them tell me they loved me and to tell them I loved them, too.

“MOM!” I screamed. “DAD!” Tears stained my face. The man thrust me toward the steps of the old, yellow school bus. I screamed one more time for my parents, telling them I loved them, reaching my arms out to them.

I could see my mom’s body rock with the force of her cries. Tears ran down my father’s face.
"We love you, Evangelina,” I heard them call just before the bus door closed.

It was the last thing I’d hear my parents say. It was the last image I’d have of them. I
pressed my hand to the window of the bus, my head bowed as I sobbed. I didn’t try to hide my tears. Everyone on the bus was crying for their families. We knew what awaited them.

Death.

I shook my head, trying to erase the horrible memory.
I wanted to remember the good things about them, not saying goodbye.

Goodbyes are hard, but this one had been different.
This wasn’t a goodbye, I’ll see you in a month. It was a permanent goodbye. I’d never see my parents again. The overwhelming sadness took over, like a black hole sucking me in. Fat, salty tears ran down my face, and I could feel my nose running. I wiped my arm across it. My eyes were swollen, my throat sore, and my chest tight.

I was alone. My parents were gone. No brothers or sisters. Just me — an orphan of the virus.